The Karnataka government’s proposal to cap movie ticket prices at Rs 200 at both multiplexes and single screens has resulted in mixed opinions. While the news might delight moviegoers, it certainly might be a cause of concern for theatre owners, particularly when decreased revenues post the pandemic have forced several single-screen theatres to close down. Multiplexes aren’t doing any better as they continue to bleed money.
The theatre business was once primarily a real estate enterprise, where anyone who could afford a sprawling area in a prime location was able to enter the business. But contemporary movie halls demand regular investments in technology and other facilities to attract audiences. In addition, movie halls have to compete with OTT streaming services to offer star-studded films that are both larger-than-life and expensive to purchase. So, it is only natural for theatre owners to attempt to retrieve their huge investments by hiking ticket prices whenever possible.
Any return on investment is possible, however, only if movie halls can consistently draw the film-going public. In states where ticket prices aren’t capped, exorbitant price hiking during prime evening shows, weekends or when big star films release has increasingly discouraged the traditional movie-going audience. Not to mention the unaffordability of that butter popcorn and parking fee at malls.
But before we get to the ticket capping debate, it is important to understand the film-going culture in our society. In India, cinema has primarily been a working-class art form. And even among the working class, it is the young male population that makes up for a major chunk of the theatre audience. States like Tamil Nadu understand this phenomenon and have capped ticket prices for several years now, where the capped level is revised periodically. This has allowed the young working-class population to continue to access movie halls. Their patronage has, moreover, played a key role in deciding the kind of Tamil films that are made.
In spite of the pandemic-induced setbacks, Tamil Nadu continues to have a thriving film-going culture, where apart from the big stars’ spectacle films, even small and mid-sized films continue to do good business at the box office. The diversity of themes touched upon in these films is impressive as well. So, essentially, Tamil cinema continues to make theatrical films, both big and small, aimed at the larger working-class population. In contrast, it is the OTT platforms that produce niche content and target the urban, middle- or upper-middle-class population. For they believe their content can be language agnostic and appeal to an elite niche group across multiple metros and urban centres.
This is precisely the distinction that a flailing Bollywood refuses to grasp — it doesn’t understand the difference between making theatrical films for the working-class population and content for niche consumers of OTT platforms. With skyrocketing ticket prices in Hindi-speaking states, Bollywood has driven the working classes away from the theatres. And has made movie halls a place for a small group of elites. This has further affected the kind of films that are being produced. Today, Hindi filmmakers are clueless about what to make for the theatres. Instead, they replicate OTT-like content for the large screen, too. This offers no recognisable incentive for even the elite consumer base to leave their home TV screens.
This has not been the case with southern cinema. Theatres continue to focus on the working classes and the sweeping success of films like Pushpa, KGF and their sequels are testimony to it. In fact, these films found immense appeal among the working-class audience outside their home states as well, resulting in spectacular box-office collections. So, the Karnataka government’s proposal to cap ticket prices is not a mindless populist measure, but an initiative that comes from a deep understanding of the film-going culture.
While capping ticket prices might affect theatre revenues in the short-term, they could promote a thriving film-going culture in the longer run, as low occupancy rates are even more detrimental to theatres than ticket price capping. But to achieve higher occupancy, other key stakeholders in the industry — producers, filmmakers and actors — too should find creative ways to draw a wider base of audience to the theatres. And, if capping the exorbitant popcorn prices can also help achieve that, maybe that too should be considered.
The writer is a Chennai-based filmmaker
